Erin Aubry Kaplan is a Los Angeles journalist and columnist who has written about African-American political, economic and cultural issues since 1992. She is currently a contributing editor to the op-ed section of the Los Angeles Times, and from 2005 to 2007 was a weekly op-ed columnist - the first black weekly op-ed columnist in the paper’s history. She has been a staff writer and columnist for the LA Weekly and New Times Los Angeles. She is a regular contributor for many publications, including Salon.com, Essence, Black Enterprise, BlackAmericaWeb, Ms.and the Independent. She is also a regular columnist for make/shift, a quarterly, cutting-edge feminist magazine that launched in 2007.
As a journalist, Erin’s passion has always been injecting the personal in features, commentary, criticism and essays. One of her most-remembered pieces is “The Butt,” an essay for the LA Weekly that pondered the many social and psychological ramifications of having the pronounced backside typical of black women (Erin was the body model for the photos that ran with the story. She thought she would go unrecognized; she did not). Another Weekly piece, “Blue Like Me,” explored the modern connections between her own long battle with depression, family history and the still-distressing state of the race. That piece won the PEN USA 2001 award for journalism.
Erin’s essays have been anthologized is several books, including Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood (Villard, Washington Square Press), Step Into A World (Wiley & Sons) and Rise Up Singing: Black Women Writers on Motherhood (Doubleday). The last book’s contributors include Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks and Alice Walker, and won an American Book Award in 2004.
Erin was born and raised in South Los Angeles and lives in Inglewood. She is married (yes, to a Jewish man—no, she’s not biracial) and has two rescue dogs, Toby and Maude.
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I'm happy to see CAKEWALK at KCET. Erin Kaplan's observations are always honest and penetrating. I look forward to reading the blog and hope it has a long run! Ken at Howling Monk
Erin,
Great article in the LATimes 'Black like US". President Obama called the action correctly that occurred in Cambridge. Profiling does not begin with the call to 911, it begins when the officer "sees" the person , and that is hard to prove.
Maybe some of us thought that we had "made it" when we got our education and a career but thanks to Crowley, he showed black people that it's not the education or the job AND the white people (news media)backed him up. I could not believe that he said "I won't apologize and those "leaders" wanted the president to apologize.
Well, back to the drawing board but in the meantime I hope black youth will get a first rate education by reading and studying.
My comments are to you, Ms Kaplan on your Op-Ed piece in the Saturday edition of the L. A. Times on "Black Like Us?". I think that Your article at best inflames some of the same rhetoric that then Candidate Obama had to take from a lot of African Americans on whether or not he was black enough to really be considered to the first black POTUS. You go back to the same old arguments that there is a separation between the haves and have-nots in Black America. I would like to say how long do we need to have this argument and keep blaming it on those people who have taken advantage of the system to improve their lives? I am old enough to know that this same argument brought forth by you in this article has been going on for over 30 years, and it will continue to go on past President Obama's time in office. We, the people have to stand up and make the real change by reading and understanding what, whom and where the real problem lies.
We know there are issues, but as I said these issues have been talked about for the last 30 years, I believe the President was only about 12 years old. Black America is also in a position to fix some of those issues. I agree there is still work to be done. I know our schools are poor in the inner city, but is that a really an excuse for little Omar or Keyneshia to drop out of school and not learn anything besides, gangs, and early pregnancies? Bill Cosby brought it up before Pres. Obama even came on the scene as to where some of the blame lies, and Bill Cosby was picked apart for it. But yet you want the President to take it up to laser focus on Black America, when in fact if the policies and plans he is trying to push will, in fact, benefit all of America. Some of Black America's issues are unique. Black America is not and should not be considered a separate part of America. I see a lot of them as internal issues to be worked on by families and communities with a little help from friends. The same thing Bill Cosby was talking about that seem to go over a lot of people's head.
I never like to identify a problem without offering a solution to fixing it, right or wrong. Why don't some of the leading Sports and Entertainers in our community see the need to go back to their communities and buy blocks of blight and fix it up the areas and provide jobs in partnership with the local governments and provide a businesses that will employ, their boys aka posses? Purchase computers and materials for the inner city schools as gifts, tutor, show these children that education is the key, not everyone can be a rapper or sports figure, but with education they can go anywhere. Our current crop of Black Politicians seem to have a problem about what is needed in their own districts. They don't seem to know when to step out say something profound or stand back and stop saying something stupid.
I guess my point to you is that the President is already taking the lead on a lot of things that can pertain to Black America, but for some reason you and others like you seem to not be able to see the forest for the trees. You want to pigeon hold him. He is the President of the United States, once again Not of Black America. If we can get Health Care Reform, that will surely help Black America. Does he not have enough thrown at him by the Radical Right and Republicans, who are now currently not showing any shame in outright calling him a racist, killer of old people and babies?
Think about that Ms. Kaplan before you again put a question mark over the President's Head on whether he is black enough!
Erin,
I also enjoyed reading your LA Times op-ed regarding the Gates matter but was left wanting more detail. What exactly do you want the President to do? Also, I don't agree with the previous post regarding the situation. It was three individuals who acted without thinking first. I don't give Gates a pass because he was tired and I don't give Crowley a break because he should have ignored the "tired" Gates. And no way does Mr. Obama get a break since he did not know the facts. In actuality the beer fest was damage control for Mr. Obama.